Entry in Thanksgiving/Christmas Newsletter Form

Hello friends,

                I am blessed to be able to thank the Lord during this upcoming season when the warm and cozy end-of-year holidays start.  Families across the United States are making plans, I’m sure, to be with family for a Thanksgiving meal, then soon after (or some before) set up for Christmas, the decorations and so forth, and then make plans for those gatherings.

                I thank the Lord for many things.  I thank the Lord for my husband.  God knew what kind of man was for me, and in His wisdom and through His love, He created a union, the kind of union I wanted, a union pleasing to Him.  I am thankful for my mom and dad, and for my husband’s parents.  I am thankful for my husband’s and my marriage union.  God knew what was needed to prepare my husband and I for each other, and He brought us together with great timing, and I have been more and more grateful for him. 

                I am thankful for my blessings, my husband's and my two children.  Our first child's life with us so far (it will be a year and a half by Christmas) has taught me many things, among them are single-mindedness, patience, sacrifice, and most of all, love.  Children need all of those things, and God in His wisdom, planned it that she would have a love language, through which all these specific needs of hers, that I needed to work on, could be interpreted best.

Our second child's life with us so far (it will be almost half a year by Christmas) has taught me humility and love.  The second time having a baby, I’ve got the basic experience of feeding, diapering, etc., behind me, but the best reward is learning to truly realize that every good and perfect gift it from above and accepting the humility before God in regards to His gift.

Among humility before God, I am very much so thankful that the Lord has taught me about fearing Him above man.  Something I didn’t learn when I was young, that I should have learned in the setting of church services, was glorifying the Lord.  God used the same place to teach me fear of the Lord, a place where I did not fear the Lord, a place where I was timid and afraid of what people thought of me whether good or bad.  If people thought well of me there, I thought well of myself.  If others thought poorly of me, well, I was so timid and afraid to make a mistake that I often wouldn’t try… I didn’t want anyone to think badly of me.  It all is summed up in a root cause: I was not giving glory to God.

What God used to bring to my attention what I needed to learn, and what He gave me to learn this and accept the freedom to fear Him was the worship service my husband went to this evening.  A few people raised their hands in worship to the Lord during these songs.  I never could bring myself to raise my arms to the Lord in any church to worship Him.  I never felt genuine about it – always afraid of what people thought… and me being afraid of what others thought of me kept me from bringing glory to the Lord by raising my hands to worship Him at church.  I tried it… it was genuine.  Obedience to fear Him and think of only what He thinks of me came first.  Then it felt good.  It felt right.  I am so looking forward to going back to church, and that how it should be… we should want to worship God because that is a way to please Him.  It makes our enemies be at peace with us.  The gift that Jesus, Who is the way, gave us when peace came to earth the beautiful holy night He was born.

In Jesus,

Lindsey Gunther